MAY 2024 – Did the recent geomagnetic solar storm bring the Northern Lights to a sky near you? My efforts to see it were thwarted by heavy clouds and light pollution unfortunately. It definitely felt like a missed opportunity as I would have loved to see them over the local landscape. What an amazing phenomenon and my sense is that the photos don’t begin to even do it justice. Like how the camera lens can never quite capture the magic and expanse of a spectacular sunset over open water.
This time of year is always particularly busy at work and it takes a strong reminder to remember to slow down and enjoy life and the show nature is putting on (with or without the aurora borealis). Thankfully running and long walks offer up a dedicated outlet for connecting with the great outdoors and dialing back any work related stress. So win-win right there! One of my favorite routes currently brings me along the water and it can appear absolutely endless when the fog takes hold.
One of my friends recommended a book to me this month, ‘Pebble in the Sky’ by Isaac Asimov. Published in 1950, it is his first novel and I find it fascinating to read sci-fi material from that era (prior to the personal computer and internet) as it is super cool to see how they envision the future and technology. It is a very clever take on the fish out of water story and the language and characterization of humans is right out of the 1950s, which when combined with the futuristic setting is quite a marvel in and of itself. It provides a very compelling thought experiment and tale of ethics within its pages.
Imagine what the humans of 75 years from now will think when they read/see the sci-fi works produced in the contemporary era. The modern culture and politics always seems to find its way into literature, tv, and film, making it a time capsule of the day it was created. And for the year 1950, you can tell that nuclear war was definitely on the minds of the collective cultural conscience. I guess some things don’t change.
~ CS
